Unfair to blame McCullum alone: Buchanan

Kolkata Knight Riders coach John Buchanan threw his weight behind Brendon McCullum and said the beleaguered captain should not be singled out for the team's abysmal performance in the Indian Premier League.

"I think one must feel that Brendon came into the tournament as captain under fire from everyone because we made some changes. So one should not blame only the captain," Buchanan said.

"I think cricket is a team game and each one of us is responsible for our performance. Traditional sense says that the captain is responsible but, in fact, everyone is," said the Australian who himself is under pressure after the team's dismal show.

Buchanan admitted the team was in a rut and was not sure if they would bounce back this year.

"It has been pretty hard for all of us. I know that we are going to get out of this. I am not sure whether it will be this time or next year. I do know that we are going to come out of this," Buchanan said.

"All we can do is try and play well. But in terms of the things, we need to improve, we will focus on one or two things rather than a range of issues. That will take time," he told IPL's official website.

The coach said some issues needs to be discussed and feels the team needs to do well consistently and remove the negatives to get results.

"There are issues which need to be discussed. We need to do consistently well as a team. We didn't have wins and we need to win few matches. We need to remove the negatives in our way.

"As Brendon had pointed out some of our batsmen have been doing well. Morne van Wyk has been very good. And we saw Moses Henrique coming good. Those are good signs and we also have David Hussey joining us soon," he said.

Buchanan was happy with the performances of his fast bowlers but agreed the dropped catches didn't do them any good.

"If you look at our bowlers, I think Ishant has bowled well. He has been unfortunate. Ajit Agarkar has comeback well. Our fielding has been good but there have been occasions when we have let our team down by dropping few catches. But nonetheless if you look at the side there has been a lot of improvement and I think we have done some good things," he said.